One of my first downvote brigades on Voat was back before Trump won and I said we should nationalize the internet. I had all the techie voaters try to weasel around the way the internet works cursing me for stating the most logical thing, it was surprising. Then I realized many of these people mustbe financially benefiting from the corrupt system, and it's starting to seem like I was exactly right.

As you know I absolutely benefit from privatized Internet. But you have to consider China's nationalized internet and the risks it includes. We're fighting plenty of censorship, propaganda, and neutrality bias at the privatized level. Hand it over to federal regulators and implementation, and we're going to see a much bigger crack down on what is "ok" to share and discuss online.

However I absolutely agree the Internet is a utility, and it was classified as such in 2015.

The "Open Internet Order" passed Thursday will prohibit broadband providers from blocking lawful Internet traffic on the basis of content, the FCC said. It also bans "paid prioritization," which would favor some traffic or create paid Internet "fast lanes."

Unfortunately, it is not the Internet Service Providers blocking content, it is the corporate giants of Reddit, Facebook, and Twitter et al. ISPs will sell (or be summoned for) your IP data if you've engaged in illegal content, but if it were nationalized they would hardly need any process at all to acquire your IP data and activities (i.e. warrantless search and guilty until proven innocent)

Amnesty International notes that China "has the largest recorded number of imprisoned journalists and cyber-dissidents in the world,"[5] and Paris-based Reporters Without Borders stated in 2010 and 2012 that "China is the world's biggest prison for netizens."[6][7] The offences of which they are accused include communicating with groups abroad, signing online petitions, and calling for reform and an end to corruption. The escalation of the government's effort to neutralize critical online opinion and organizing comes after a series of large, anti-pollution, anti-corruption protests, and ethnic riots, many of which were organized or publicized using instant messaging services, chat rooms, and text messages.[citation needed] The size of the Chinese Internet police force was reported by the state government to be 2 million in 2013.[8]

Just some thoughts my man. If there was any one entity you would want to be in charge of the Internet, I would vote for the EFF.

I don’t think it has as much to do with money as it is controlling the conversation/creating echo chambers for the left to indoctrinate kids on the internet. Kids spend so much time online and watching propaganda on TV that they think shills are real people and become extremists, while thinking everyone else are the extremists. Alex Jones is just the first domino, setting the precedent of censoring anyone going against (((their))) narrative.

All of these companies have taken govt money and executives to fund their operations; and get subsidized in on way or another. They are not "private" in the sense that they are fascist organizations (merger of govt and corporations). We are definitely deep into the Socialist genre of governance at this point. It's just a matter of which version will win - communism or fascism.

Uh, how about prosecuting them for election interference, or terms of use violations, or identity theft, or enabling and protecting known terrorists and criminals, or for providing knowingly false statements before congress while under oath, or for facilitating constitutional 4th amendment violations by secretly cooperating with the NSA? How about simply throwing the already existing book at them? Socializing facebook under government control would not make it better, it would only serve to cement the monopoly, guaranteeing it will be run corruptly.

Honestly I find it a good thing they were banned. Not because Infowars has been censored, but because this should be a very good indicator to viewers and content creators that sites like YouTube don't care for a free and open discussion. I hope this gets more consumers and creators to switch to or at least mirror their content on other sites. It is time we switch to alternatives like BitChute, PeerTube, IPFS, etc.

Oh, but the "respectable" journals like the NYTimes, Guardian, Washington Post who never had the moral fortitude to tell the public that Muslims has formed paedophile rape gangs all over the place, had create No-Go zones and Sharia courts, had pushed ahead with Female Genital Mutilations and child marriages and acid attacks for not wearing a Hijab or Niqab are still allowed to censor and deceive the public in the name of "excellence in Journalism"? What a joke. We cannot let this stand. We need to impose the 1st and 4th amendments to the US Constitution onto these tubes and conduits of content like You Tube and Twitter. The public square is on the internet if it is anywhere and that public square is what is under assault. The US Public owns the internet having paid for it and invented it. We the People have this power if we only exercise our will.